


The Uncertainty of Gift Giving

by revolutionator



Category: BanG Dream! Girl's Band Party! (Video Game)
Genre: F/F, Happy Birthday!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-11
Updated: 2018-09-09
Packaged: 2019-07-08 18:28:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,753
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15935897
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/revolutionator/pseuds/revolutionator
Summary: Kanon frets over a present for Misaki.





	1. Chisato

**Author's Note:**

  * For [seirensen](https://archiveofourown.org/users/seirensen/gifts).



> Happy birthday Rei! Reading Meowgon's fic for you made me really want to write you something too. It's a little short and simple but I hope you like it. You rock!

“It looks…” Chisato let her words lilt while she sliced into her cake with her fork, because that way it would be understood that she was about to take a bite, and that in turn would afford her a couple more seconds to think of a tactful answer. She was not accustomed to giving tactful answers, but Kanon was worth the effort. “It looks like it took a very long time.”

“You hate it,” Kanon said. Her voice was soft, resigned, miserable. “It doesn’t look like anything, does it?”

“Oh, no, that’s not it. It looks very…” A practiced sip of coffee. “It looks very charming, exactly like one of the mascots from that videogame. It is that mascot, isn’t it? The one who rides around on a star and eats things.”

“Kirby?”

Chisato dabbed her lips with a handkerchief. “See, I knew what it was.”

“It’s supposed to be Michelle,” Kanon said, even quieter. She took the little muddle of felt and cotton off from the table and stowed it back in her bag, looking more woe begotten than Chisato had seen her since she first joined her ludicrous band in the first place.

“Well, Calbee and Michelle look very similar, so…”

“Mm, Chisato-chan, it’s called ‘Kirby’...”

“Kanon,” Chisato said, with none of the sharpness she would have given anyone else – with much less of the sharpness, at any rate. “It’s a birthday present, is it not? Okusawa-san will adore it. I’m sure she’ll recognize it right away, seeing how it’s the very costume she has to climb into day after day- “

“Oh, gosh,” Kanon said, looking newly stricken, “you’re right. She hates being conflated with Michelle… I should have made something else!”

At this point other patrons of the Hazawa café were glancing in her direction, though they were at least gracious enough to pretend otherwise. Chisato coolly adjusted her sunglasses and sipped her latte with practiced indifference. This was just a momentary blip in their coffee date; Kanon would calm down, if she could just think of the right thing to say.

“Okusawa-san,” she tried again, “strikes me as someone who would appreciate the effort, no matter what form it took.”

Kanon looked at her untouched cake platter, head slightly lowered, a pretty blush on her face. She nodded once, imperceptibly, and then a second time with more confidence.

“If you had crafted a present like that for me I would treasure it.”

Kanon looked up and smiled, which loosened all kinds of internal tensions Chisato hadn’t even known were drawing taut inside of her. She broke off a small chunk of shortcake and offered it forward, knowing Kanon would open her mouth to take it, feeling relieved and delighted when she did when it happened.

“You always make me feel better,” Kanon said softly. “I’ll… I’ll work on it some more tonight, and… Even if it still looks silly when I’m done, I’ll still give it to her! I got chocolates and a hair pin from the mall, so even if this part of the gift isn’t very good, she’ll like the whole package, I think…”

“I’m sure she will,” Chisato said. Her fork scraped noisily against the plate, but she didn’t apologize.


	2. Misaki

God, what a day.

Misaki had to be honest with herself here: she wasn’t a birthday sort of person. Blending into the background was so familiar at this point it was comfortable, and birthdays necessitated attention. What’s more, attention from the people she surrounded herself with these days was proving to be a mixed blessing. It was bad enough back when the lead singer in the band didn’t know her name, but now that she was on Kokoro’s radar it meant she was susceptible to surprise birthday parties, which was exactly what she was currently recovering from now.

She ran a hand through her hair (extracting a healthy portion of glittered confetti as she did so) and sighed, one of those full-body sighs that makes you feel more exhausted after finishing it. It was so loud she didn’t hear the calling voice until it was halfway through her name.

“-saki!!!”

“Kanon-senpai?”

Kanon skidded to a halt in front of her, puffing for breath. Misaki almost marvelled at how she’d managed to find her way to the station; then realised she’d probably tailed her the entire way, or dashed from convenience store to convenience store checking directions. Kanon was also dusted with pink and gold glitter, and her side ponytail was wreathed in rainbow streamers. No one had escaped the party unscathed.

“I-hhh-w-wanted… W… Wanted, to, give you… ah, a… a present,” she eventually stammered out, heavily punctuated with gasps and wheezes. “Not the Hello Happy… Hello, Happy World present… ah, just, one from… m-me.”

Misaki blinked, stringing the words together and filtering the gasps out. It took a beat too long, so her response felt almost comically delayed: “You got me a present?”

Kanon leant against the wall, breathing deeper but more evenly. She also brushed her hair through, showering the ground in party glitter and strings of crepe paper, and when she stood up straight again she took one last deep gulp of air that Misaki had come to recognize as a ritual before she did something Extremely Brave.

“I-I made it! I made a present. And it isn’t very good, maybe, but I did make it, all by myself – w-well, based on the things you taught me. Do you want to… Do you want to maybe, sit down? I can buy you a coffee...”

Misaki shook her head numbly, still trying to process that Kanon Matsubara had deigned to get her a personalized birthday gift. Not only get her one, make her one! On top of that, she was offering to buy her coffee. That wouldn’t do. Kanon helped her so much in the day to day chaos that if anything, Misaki should be buying her a coffee. She realized from the flustered expression on Kanon’s face that she’d gone too long without giving her an answer, so she nodded, even while she was still knitting her thoughts back together.

“No,” she said.

“What?”

“I mean, yes. Yes, let’s get coffee. But no, don’t pay. I’ll pay.”

“It’s your birthday, Misaki,” Kanon said, eyes over bright. She had such a striking expression when she got like that, nervous rabbit energy with big shining eyes, tears almost pricking at the corners…

“Yes, but you’re my-”

“I want to buy you coffee.”

 

Misaki suddenly found herself sat at the station’s Starbucks outlet with a huge white chocolate mocha steaming in front of her, with no memory of how she’d gotten there. Kanon was smiling gently at her from across the table.  There was a dark blue felt bag sat in between them on the table, beautifully tied with a silver ribbon.

Thank heavens this place was just busy enough that no one was paying attention to the two of them, and just quiet enough that Misaki didn’t feel bad for taking up space. She sipped her mocha, alternately peeking at Kanon’s hopeful face and then feeling too hot all over to handle it and glancing away.

“Thanks,” she said, awkwardly. Then: “about today- “

“Oh, it was fine. I’m sorry it was so loud. I wasn’t expecting there to be flamingos…”

“Who was?” Misaki felt a tension inside of her give way, and for the first time in any birthdays gave a completely sincere laugh. “I was glad you were there.”

“I was glad I was there too.”

This time Kanon glanced away. She was very pink in the face too. Misaki wasn’t sure what possessed her to put her hand across the table, but when she did Kanon accepted her hand and slotted their fingers together, and instantly it became much less embarrassing.

Well, until she realized she needed both hands available to open the present. Misaki made a faintly apologetic mumble as she took her hand away and took the bag into her lap, so she could unfasten the bow. The things – things! Plural! – inside were stacked atop of each other, so she could take them out one by one.

“Oh, Ghana chocolate,” she said. “My favorite.”

Kanon looked so relieved she might pass out.

“Kanon-senpai, this present is maybe too nice.”

“No,” Kanon said decisively.

Misaki took the bar of chocolate out and blinked. Something clipped into a rectangle of powder pink card and covered in cellophane, something that caught the light as she pulled it out of the bag –

“A hairpin?”

“You always wear clothes from that line,” Kanon squeaked, “so I thought you might like matching accessories.”

Misaki, already having peeled the clip out of its packaging and slotted it into her bangs, nodded. Simple, chunky English letters. Classic and understated. True, it was a little embarrassing to think that Kanon had been paying such close attention to what she wore; but embarrassing in a nice way.

There was one last thing inside the bag. Kanon was studiously staring at her own drink as Misaki emptied the last item onto her hand, where it landed with a soft _fwump_. She took a second to process the weird, lumpy felt shape on her palm before the recognition clicked, and it pulled a sharp breath out of her that she hadn’t realized she’d been holding back.

 “Michelle,” she said in a way that she hoped was neutral.

“You knew what it was!” Kanon’s voice was filled with palpable relief.

“You got lots better at felting,” Misaki said, twisting the felt doll to and fro. Michelle’s jacket was indistinguishable from her lumpy pink body, but Kanon had stitched bright yellow buttons in all the right places. Her eyes had bright highlights and her smile, though lopsided, was stitched neatly in the right place. She didn’t have a hat, but that was fine. “She’s perfect.”

“I worried maybe it wasn’t a good idea. And, I couldn’t give it to you in front of the others…”

Misaki pictured the chaotic confusion on Hagumi, Kaoru and Kokoro’s faces if Kanon had gifted her with a Michelle at an already terrifying birthday party, then shuddered. Thank goodness Kanon had a similar expression of narrowly averted doom on her face.

“I love it. Thanks.”

Kanon’s smile was warmer than ever. This time she was the one who reached her hand across the table, and Misaki barely hesitated a second before she took her hand in turn. Not a bad birthday, as it turned out.

Maybe even a pretty good one.


End file.
